hledger/README

hledger - a ledger-compatible text-based accounting tool
========================================================

Welcome to hledger! 

hledger is a minimal haskell clone of John Wiegley's "ledger" text-based
accounting tool (http://newartisans.com/software/ledger.html).  hledger
generates ledger-compatible register & balance reports from a plain text
ledger file, and demonstrates a functional implementation of ledger.  For
more information, see the hledger home page: http://joyful.com/hledger

Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com>
Released under GPL version 3 or later.


Installation
------------
If you have cabal-install, in this directory do::

 cabal install

otherwise, unpack the latest tarball from
http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/hledger and do::

 runhaskell Setup.hs configure
 runhaskell Setup.hs build
 sudo runhaskell Setup.hs install 

or for the latest development code: darcs get http://joyful.com/repos/hledger


Examples
--------
Here are some commands to try::

 hledger --help
 hledger -f sample.ledger balance
 export LEDGER=sample.ledger
 hledger -s balance
 hledger register
 hledger reg cash
 hledger reg -- shop


Features
--------

This version of hledger mimics a subset of ledger 2.6.1. We currently
support: the balance, print, and register commands, regular ledger
entries, multiple commodities, virtual transactions, account and
description patterns, the LEDGER environment variable, and these options::

   Basic options:
   -h, --help             display summarized help text
   -v, --version          show version information
   -f, --file FILE        read ledger data from FILE
 
   Report filtering:
   -b, --begin DATE       set report begin date
   -e, --end DATE         set report end date
   -p, --period EXPR      report using the given period (limited support)
   -C, --cleared          consider only cleared transactions
   -R, --real             consider only real (non-virtual) transactions
 
   Output customization:
   -n, --collapse         balance report: no grand total
   -d, --display EXPR     display only transactions matching EXPR (limited support)
   -E, --empty            balance report: show accounts with zero balance
   -s, --subtotal         balance report: show sub-accounts
 
   Commodity reporting:
   -B, --basis, --cost    report cost basis of commodities

   Commands:
   balance  [REGEXP]...   show balance totals for matching accounts
   register [REGEXP]...   show register of matching transactions
   print    [REGEXP]...   print all matching entries

We handle simple display expressions consisting of a date predicate,
and simple period expressions consisting of a single smart date.
Also the following hledger-specific features are supported::

   --depth=N              balance report: maximum account depth to show
   --options-anywhere     allow options anywhere, use ^ for negative patterns

ledger features not supported
.............................

ledger features not yet supported include: modifier and periodic entries,
!include and other special directives, price history entries, parsing
gnucash files, and the following options::

   Basic options:
   -o, --output FILE      write output to FILE
   -i, --init-file FILE   initialize ledger using FILE (default: ~/.ledgerrc)
       --cache FILE       use FILE as a binary cache when --file is not used
       --no-cache         don't use a cache, even if it would be appropriate
   -a, --account NAME     use NAME for the default account (useful with QIF)
 
   Report filtering:
   -c, --current          show only current and past entries (not future)
       --period-sort EXPR sort each report period's entries by EXPR
   -U, --uncleared        consider only uncleared transactions
   -L, --actual           consider only actual (non-automated) transactions
   -r, --related          calculate report using related transactions
       --budget           generate budget entries based on periodic entries
       --add-budget       show all transactions plus the budget
       --unbudgeted       show only unbudgeted transactions
       --forecast EXPR    generate forecast entries while EXPR is true
   -l, --limit EXPR       calculate only transactions matching EXPR
   -t, --amount EXPR      use EXPR to calculate the displayed amount
   -T, --total EXPR       use EXPR to calculate the displayed total
 
   Output customization:
   -n, --collapse         register: collapse entries
   -s, --subtotal         other: show subtotals
   -P, --by-payee         show summarized totals by payee
   -x, --comm-as-payee    set commodity name as the payee, for reporting
   -W, --weekly           show weekly sub-totals
   -M, --monthly          show monthly sub-totals
   -Y, --yearly           show yearly sub-totals
       --dow              show a days-of-the-week report
   -S, --sort EXPR        sort report according to the value expression EXPR
   -w, --wide             for the default register report, use 132 columns
       --head COUNT       show only the first COUNT entries (negative inverts)
       --tail COUNT       show only the last COUNT entries (negative inverts)
       --pager PAGER      send all output through the given PAGER program
   -A, --average          report average transaction amount
   -D, --deviation        report deviation from the average
   -%, --percentage       report balance totals as a percentile of the parent
       --totals           in the "xml" report, include running total
   -j, --amount-data      print only raw amount data (useful for scripting)
   -J, --total-data       print only raw total data
   -y, --date-format STR  use STR as the date format (default: %Y/%m/%d)
   -F, --format STR       use STR as the format; for each report type, use:
       --balance-format      --register-format       --print-format
       --plot-amount-format  --plot-total-format     --equity-format
       --prices-format       --wide-register-format
 
   Commodity reporting:
       --price-db FILE    sets the price database to FILE (def: ~/.pricedb)
   -L, --price-exp MINS   download quotes only if newer than MINS (def: 1440)
   -Q, --download         download price information when needed
   -O, --quantity         report commodity totals (this is the default)
   -V, --market           report last known market value
   -g, --performance      report gain/loss for each displayed transaction
   -G, --gain             report net gain/loss
 
   Commands:
   xml      [REGEXP]...   print matching entries in XML format
   equity   [REGEXP]...   output equity entries for matching accounts
   prices   [REGEXP]...   display price history for matching commodities
   entry DATE PAYEE AMT   output a derived entry, based on the arguments

Other differences
.................

* hledger keeps differently-priced amounts of the same commodity separate, at the moment
* hledger refers to the entry and transaction "description", ledger calls it "note"
* hledger doesn't require a space after flags like -f
* hledger doesn't parse all ledger file constructs (and may choke ? please report)
* hledger interprets "last/this/next week" as weeks beginning on monday
* hledger provides "--cost" as a synonym for "--basis"
* hledger's "weekly" reporting intervals always start on mondays
* hledger shows start and end dates of full intervals, not just the span containing data
* hledger period expressions don't support "biweekly", "bimonthly", or "every N days/weeks/..." 
* hledger always shows timelog balances in hours
* hledger doesn't count an unfinished timelog session
* (disabled for now: hledger counts timelog sessions on the day they end, ledger on the day they start)